Social Media and Its Effect on Mental Health

It’s very hard to find a teenager nowadays who does not participate in some form of social media. With so many different platforms and constant notifications and updates, social media has become an integral part of life for many of America’s youth. While these websites connect people and allow for the sharing of ideas and art, there can be extremely negative side effects that aren’t often talked about. Effects that I’ve witnessed firsthand, and forced me to write this article so that others can be aware of this issue. Social media can create a false image of a life, causing people to view others as their perfect profile and not who they really are. It causes a ton of problems, especially for those who are addicted to social media. In fact, there is a study from showing that teens who spend 5 hours or more a day on their phone are 2x more likely to develop symptoms of depression (mediakix). First of all, depression is a huge area of concern for young teens and with this addiction to social media the problem only gets larger. For example, everybody wants to look as best as they can on their profiles. When scrolling through an instagram feed, all of these perfect looking pictures and happy peers can cause teens to feel like nobody else has problems except for them. This thinking can lead to people to isolate themselves from others, which can make their mental health state become worse. It’s very worrying for this young generation, and will need to be solved somehow because it has affected so many teenagers, it is almost an epidemic.